Tuesday - the Day of Confrontation

Have you ever had a really bad day? You know, one of those days when absolutely nothing seems to go right? Listen to this man’s description of his bad day. This is taken from an accident insurance claim that was filed by a bricklayer several years ago in the United States.

• On the day of the accident I was working alone on the roof of the new six-story building at 165 Main Street. When I completed the job, I had about 500 pounds of bricks left over. Rather than carry the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel using a pulley which was attached to the side of the building at the sixth floor.

• I secured the rope at ground level, went up to the roof, swung the barrel out and loaded the bricks into it. I then went back to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to insure a slow descent of the 500 lb. barrel of bricks. Please refer to block #11 of the accident report which states that my weight is 155 lbs.

• To my surprise, I was jerked off the ground suddenly and began a rapid ascent up the side of the building. I regret to say that I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope.

• At about the third floor, I met the barrel of bricks coming down. This explains my fractured collarbone. After sustaining this injury, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley.

• Fortunately, I was able to hold on tightly to the rope in spite of my pain. At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground with severe force, and the bottom burst out. Devoid of the weight of the bricks, the empty barrel now weighed approximately 30 pounds.

• I began a rapid descent down the side of the building. In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for my fractured ankle and lacerations of my legs and lower body. The encounter with the empty barrel did slow me down enough to lessen my injuries when I landed on the pile of bricks.

• I am sorry to report, however, that as I lay there in pain on the pile of bricks, I lost my presence of mind and let go of the rope. The empty barrel fell six stories and broke two of my ribs.

Have you ever had a day like that?

We have been following the ministry of Jesus through his final week before he went to the cross, and today we come to Tuesday. On Tuesday of the week that changed history, Jesus was going to experience the most draining, difficult, and discouraging day of his ministry up to that point. We could call it Terrible Tuesday.

On Palm Sunday, he had entered Jerusalem in triumph. On Monday, he had cursed the fig tree, cleansed the Temple and challenged his disciples about holiness and faith. On Tuesday, he went back to the Temple and ran smack into the religious leaders, who were still smarting over how he had knocked the props out from under their money-making racket in the Temple the day before. That’s why I call Tuesday the Day of Confrontation. Let’s pick up the story in Mark 11:27…

They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”

Question: What was their tone of voice? Was it meek? Were they asking these questions out of a genuine desire to know the truth?

No! It was more like “Who do you think you are? How DARE you come into this place and do what you did here yesterday. Where do you get the right to do these things? Who gave you a license to preach like this? Where are your credentials? What seminary did you graduate from? Let’s see your diploma.”

Their voices were dripping with scorn and condemnation. But they DID have their finger on one thing. The question really IS one of authority. The religious leaders absolutely refused out of hand to consider the possibility that Jesus had authority from God to do what he did.

Now isn’t that ironic? Here are a group of men who are supposedly the representatives of God - the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders. And yet they are the ones who are refusing the authority of the Son of God over their lives.

Listen - if you want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ - the whole thing boils down to the question of authority. Am I going to let Him have control over me, or am I going to maintain control of my life and keep Him in his place? Put it another way—am I going to be the owner of my life, or am I going to let Him be the owner of my life?

Look at how Jesus responds to the religious leaders. He doesn’t blow his cool. He doesn’t clobber them.

He tells them three parables—three common, everyday stories that had a spiritual hook in them. He told them about a father and his two sons, a gang of rebellious farmers, and a wedding reception. And each of these stories is about how we respond to God’s authority.

Mark only recorded two of those parables, so we’re going to have to go to Matthew to find the first one. Turn over to Matthew 21:28.

The Parable of the Two Sons Matt. 21:28–32

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ ’ I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

Which of the two did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

A parable is a made-up story with a real-life meaning. In a parable, each person, each detail stands for something in real-life. In this parable, God is the father, and the two sons represent two kinds of people in Israel:

1. the first son represents the sinners—the tax collectors and prostitutes—the “low-life”. When God comes along and asks them to do his will, at first they say “Get lost!” But then they have a change of heart and obey. They end up doing his will.

3. the second son represents the religious folks—the chief priests, the teachers of the law, the elders. When God comes along and asks them to do his will, they say “Yeah, sure, we’ll do your will. Anything you say, Dad.” But they never get around to doing it! They’re all talk and no action.

Jesus said: “This is exactly how it is in Israel.

When John the Baptist was sent by my Father to be my forerunner, you religious people showed great interest in his work, you listened to his preaching, but you did not obey his message. You did not repent of your sins. You did not humble yourselves and allow him to baptize you.

But the sinners—the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the very people you look down on with scorn—they were the ones who obeyed John’s words. They were the ones who got baptized. Why? Because they believed that John spoke with the authority of God.

But you guys hardened your hearts and rejected God’s message. You rejected my Father’s authority.

Then he told them another story. Let’s stay in Matthew and pick it up at 21:33…

The Parable of the Tenants Matthew 21:33–46

Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.

When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way.

Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

“He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ”’ The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

In this parable, Jesus reminds the Jewish leaders of God’s goodness to them as a nation. He delivered them from Egypt and planted them in a rich land flowing with milk and honey. In other words, he put them in a vineyard. He gave them material and spiritual blessings and asked only that they bear fruit for His glory.

From time to time, God sent servants—His prophets—to Israel to receive the fruit. But the people mistreated the servants and even killed some of them. What should the landowner do? He could have sent his army to destroy those wicked farmers. But instead, he sent his own son to them. This son in the parable, of course, is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

But instead of receiving the son, the farmers cast him out of the vineyard and kill him. Now the religious leaders who were listening to this parable were caught up in the drama of it. And they didn’t realize when they responded as they did in verse 41 that they were passing sentence on themselves.

Jesus went on to quote from Psalm 118—the same Psalm that the crowd on Palm Sunday had shouted when they welcomed Jesus into the city. And Jesus showed that He was that Son and the religious leaders were the wicked tenant farmers. They were the builders who rejected the cornerstone.

And the consequences for Israel would be tragic. The kingdom of God would be taken away from Israel and given to another nation—the church of Jesus Christ.

The religious leaders of Israel rejected the Father when they rejected John the Baptist. They rejected the Son when they rejected Jesus. But in spite of all that, God gives them one more chance. And that is what the last parable is about. Look at Matthew 22:1–14…

The Parable of the Wedding Banquet Matt. 22:1–14

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them.

The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Here we see the Father and the Son. And the Son has a bride, because there is going to be a wedding banquet.

What we are looking at here in this parable is the time after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is the time of the church—the Bride of Christ. And the Father is still inviting the people of Israel to come to the wedding banquet.

When you study the book of Acts, in the first seven chapters, you discover that the message of the Gospel—the invitation to enter the kingdom of God—is given almost exclusively to the Jewish people. It is only afterward that the invitation is given to the Gentiles.

How did the religious leaders respond to this invitation? They rejected it again. They persecuted the church. The same leaders who had stood by and allowed Herod to kill John the Baptist; the same leaders who had demanded that Pilate crucify Jesus; were the same leaders who themselves picked up stones and stoned Stephen.

How did the king in the parable respond to their rejection of his invitation? He sent an army to destroy them and their city, it says in verse 7. Do you know what happened in the year 70 A.D.? The Roman army came and destroyed Jerusalem. The city was burned to the ground.

When the religious leaders rejected John the Baptist, they rejected God the Father and His authority. But God forgave them, and gave them more light. When they rejected Jesus Christ, they rejected the Son and his authority. But Jesus forgave them—he said on the cross “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

But when they rejected the Gospel message about the risen Lord, they were rejecting the Holy Spirit and his authority. Stephen, in his last words said “You are resisting the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51). And when you resist the Holy Spirit, there can be no forgiveness, because you are turning your back on the message of salvation—the only thing that can save you.

After the stoning of Stephen, in Acts 7, the Gospel message begins to go to the Gentiles. First to the Samaritans in Acts 8, then to the Ethiopian eunuch at the end of that chapter. Then in Acts 9, God, in his grace takes one of those tough, cynical religious leaders—a man named Saul—and begins to shape him into an apostle—not to the Jews, but to the Gentiles. And in Acts 10, the Gospel reaches the Gentiles; a Roman centurion named Cornelius and his household are saved.

What is the message of Terrible Tuesday—the Day of Confrontation? Simply that God has invted you to be a part of his kingdom. His passion is for you and me. He keeps looking for us, sending for us, trying to connect with us, just as he did with the religious leaders in Israel. He is like a father looking for a lost child.

Take a look at the palm of your hand this morning—what do you see? Well, depending upon the kind of work you do, you might see some calluses on that hand. How did the calluses get there?

Calluses are formed wherever there is a constant irritation or rubbing. A mechanic gets calluses from holding wrenches and twisting screwdrivers all day long. A guitar player gets calluses on his fingertips from the guitar strings.

Calluses are a defense mechanism of the body. A callus often starts out as a blister— it can be painful and tender at that stage. But gradually, that blister will harden into an armored shell of tough, dead skin—a callus.

Did you know that, in a spiritual sense, you can get calluses on your heart? When you rub up against God’s authority, one of two things can happen. Either you will yield to that authority and allow God to reshape your life according to His will; or you will gradually develop a resistance to God’s authority, and form a callus on your heart.

You know, there are a lot of things in life that we cannot choose. We cannot choose the weather. We can’t control the economy. We can’t choose whether we are born with blue eyes or a big nose or lots of hair. We can’t even choose how people respond to us. But we can choose how we’ll respond to God.

But the longer you know this and choose not to choose, the more scar tissue forms on your heart. The thicker the callus gets. The spiritual truth of the Gospel can be like the measles. If you are exposed to it for long enough, you can develop a resistance to it.

If you are around spiritual truth for long enough without actually “catching it” and letting it penetrate your life, you can turn out to be like those religious leaders Jesus met on Terrible Tuesday.

That’s why it’s dangerous to be around Christianity without actually having your own personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

At the end of that last parable, Jesus included a strange detail about a man who was discovered to be at the wedding banquet without the proper clothes on. You see, in those days, a wealthy host of a wedding banquet not only provided the food, he provided the clothes as well—fine garments for everyone to wear—so that nobody, not even the poorest guest, would be embarrassed.

But here was a man at the banquet who had not put on the clothing provided by the host. Evidently, he thought that his own clothing was good enough. He felt that he didn’t need the proper wedding garments.

Do you see the symbolism? When we respond to the invitation to God’s banquet, we must accept the robe of righteousness that God gives us. We can’t go into the kingdom of God wearing our own righteousness. All our righteousness is like filthy rags in God’s sight. He has prepared for us a clean garment—the righteousness of Christ.

In Zechariah chapter 3, we read that Joshua, the high priest, was dressed in filthy robes as he stood before the angel of the Lord. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.”

I’m going to ask you to bow in prayer with me. And as you think about what you’ve heard here tonight, I’m going to ask you to take stock of your relationship with God.

It may be that you have attended church for many years. You’ve been around the truth for along time, but you’ve never really let the truth penetrate your life. You’re still trying to make yourself look presentable to God in the old rags of your self-righteousness. And you realize today that it isn’t good enough.

God is calling you today. His patience hasn’t run out. He’s calling you one more time. Giving you another chance to respond to his invitation—to open the door. Will you do it?